ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



pretation ; but the solution of the problem does not properly come 

 within the scope of a work like this. 1 



There are but scanty accounts of the changes made in the outward 

 appearance and in the services of the Church at the beginning of Eliza- 

 beth's reign ; it is, however, generally acknowledged that these were 

 gradual, and that the vestments and other ornaments recovered during 

 the reign of Mary were not laid aside at once. It is probable that 

 except in remote parts of the country the altars were removed and tables 

 substituted very soon : the Churchwardens' Account Book at Wing, 

 where the Roman interest was strong, notes that the altars in that 

 church were kept up beyond the appointed time, but that is only till 

 1 56 1. 2 The rood had to be removed with the images in 15 59"; but 

 the rood loft did not come down till 1562.* The reading pew and 

 desk, an outward and visible sign that mattins had supplanted mass as 

 the chief Sunday service, appeared in 1571 5 ; but not till 1582 were 

 the walls completely whitewashed and painted with texts after the 

 approved fashion.* Other churches would carry out the same changes 

 more or less rapidly, according to the particular views of incumbents 

 and patrons. Towards the end of the reign great unsightly pews, often 

 placed in such position that the rarely used chancel was quite invisible 

 from the body of the church, began to be erected everywhere. 7 



There is a report of the archdeaconry in 15845 8 which gives an 

 idea of the state of the churches at this time, and serves as a connecting 

 link between the early part of this century and the next. Out of 

 twenty-nine churches, in which some default or other is noticed, seven 

 had the chancels in bad repair and four the walls or windows. In seven 

 churches the rector was non-resident : in one of these no curate what- 

 ever was sent to supply his place, so that there were no services ; in two 

 others there were only occasional services. At Weston Turville and 

 C^uainton there was no distribution of alms to the poor. At Drayton 

 Parslow the rector was a ' common quarreller at the law ' and a fre- 



1 It is only fair to mention that there are signs even in the history of this county of some confusion 

 or distortion of the moral sense among English Roman Catholics at this time, whether due to the priests 

 or no : e.g. Lady Hungerford writes to her sister the Duchess of Feria in 1602 asking her to receive a 

 certain Mr. Butler, a ' reconciled Catholic,' who had (on great occasion, as he thought) committed a 

 crime for which he was constrained to leave his country. S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxxiv. 26. 



2 On f. 64 a payment of &d. is entered ' To the sumner to keep us from Lincoln for slackness of our 

 altars.' Immediately after a table appears amongst the items bought. 



3 On f. 61 after ' a Book for ministering of the Sacrament in English ' comes ' Taking down of the 

 rood,' both in 1559. 



4 On f . 65 (i 562) are items ' Taking down of our wod loft,' and ' Taking away the rubble of our 

 altars and laying down the stone of the altar again.' 6 Ibid. f. 74. 



8 Ibid. f. 85d. It is a great pity that so few of these Churchwardens' Boob are preserved. They 

 contain much interesting indirect evidence as to the ritual and services of the time. At Wing for instance 

 from 1559 onwards there is no account of the mending of any vestment but the surplice ; and the fre- 

 quent mention of the ' Midsomer communion ' as well as those of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, 

 makes it probable that there were only four celebrations in the year. There is evidence that the church 

 was regularly repaired, and alms paid to the poor on All Souls' Day, through most of the reign of Eliza- 

 beth. 



' There is a plan of Chetwode Church ' temp. Elizabeth ' printed from Browne Willis's MSS. in 

 Records of Sucks, iii. 214, where three large pews stand between the altar and the choir. 



B Among the episcopal records in the Alnwick Tower at Lincoln. 



317 



